St. Paul daily globe., 1887-03-14
PLYmOUTH,S PASTOR.
DR.. Dana rays a Grand Tribute to
Henry Ward Beecher..The Lesson
of His Life.

DIR. Dana rays a Grand Tribute to
Henry Ward Beecher..The Lesson
of His Life.
Plymouth church was crowded last even
ing with an interesting audience to hear
DR.. Dana's eulogy upon the life and teach
ings of Henry Ward Beecher He took his
text from Hebrews XII, 4. He being dead
yet speaketh." In substance the speaker
said:
No great life ever loses its power. Death
may give it a wider sweep. The worlds of
souls live on-their EameS are used to inspire
and move generations to do better. And what
may we learn from this great mans life-his
untiagging devotion to great objecls for his
country, for humanity. for God; his sympa-
thy for God; his sympathy with men; his fe-
atty to his convictions of right; his broad.
loving presentment of truth? He never
would take his personal convictions from
anyone else; he was guided by the convic-
tious OF his own conscience. 1t made him
perfectly fearless-ready to advocate that
which was unpopular. Whoever Numbered
more loudly than MIR. Beecher against all
forms of pharaseism, the iniquities of daily
life, the cocooned rich man. the venal poll
tician. the slave monger? His federation,
however, sometimes made him disagree. He
was impatient with whatever was deceitfui.
Who can recall without admiration the man
IL
nounced slavery and preached emancipation?
Garrison and Phillips, when they could find no
other pulpit, were allowed to occupy the plat
form of Plymouth church. Long before it
was popular to advocate total abstinence his
was the clarion voice raised in the crusade
against the common vice and the woes of in
temperance.
HIS LAST PUBLIC SPEECH
was in favor of the high license bill before
the New York legislature. A total abstainer
himself, an ardent prohibitionist, yet his ma
tive spirit of liberation made him willing to
advocate high license. You remember, dur
ing the agitation of the settlement of Kansas
whether it was to be slave state or free
state--from Mr.. Beecher's church went out
she colony not only with Bibles but with bay
onets. Doctrinally he was, as many would
say, lax, but think that Mr. Beecher was
always true heartwise. When he left the
Republican party and took up the cause of
aim who now occupies the presidential chair,
although some of US disagreed with him,
we must say that Mr.. Beecher
followed fearlessly his convictions Of right.
Then look at the man in the puipit-bs
power it lay think more in his insight into
human nature than anything else--a sort of
moral surgery, not only amazing but ingeni-
ous. He made his hearers known to them
selves. See how he broadened out the pulpit
from its traditional narrowness, discussing
questions OF labor, social questions, temper
.ance and political questions, preaching for
business integrity-applying the ethics of
the gospel and urging the practice of its
precepts. He bore hardest not upon those
who failed, but upon those who made great
professions-lovin the good Samaritan and
hating the pharisee. He abhored the man
who lived by 6x4 rule. His scheme of the
oiogy was the fatherhood OF God and the
brotherhood of men. These were the twin
thoughts in the front of mis- theology. While
he preached for the day in which he lived, his
will last for 0anQ nQroti nd
tions; that which makes Shakespeare's writ
ngs abiding will make his also; there is that
in them which finds the human heart. As a
preacher, pre-eminent: as an orator. hardly
his peer is in America; Us a consummate lee.
turer, beard all over the world; as reformer,